Visma | Lease a Bike management release statements after coach Niermann defects to Lidl-Trek

Visma | Lease a Bike confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that sporting manager Grischa Niermann will leave the team. CEO Richard Plugge and his successor Marc Reef, as Head of Racing, conducted a specially arranged moment to deliver statements about Niermann’s departure and the consequences it will have for the international media.

“Just as surprised as all of you will be now, I was very surprised when I got a phone call from Grischa a few weeks ago. In that call he told me he would be leaving the team.”

“Since Merijn [Zeeman, ed.] left the team, we have set up a new structure. We have a sporting management with several members, with the aim of making our organisation anti-fragile.”

“Our Yellow B-culture of winning together and improving every day are the best examples of that. Over the past year and a half, Robbert de Groot, Patrick Broe, Mathieu Heijboer and Grischa have formed that sporting management, under the leadership of Jacco Verhaeren.”

“I am very sad that Grischa is leaving our team now. He has only just started in his new role, and he was developing more and more in that position. So I am disappointed: both as a person and as a fantastic sports director, I have a lot of respect for him.”

“Together we achieved an enormous amount of success, with multiple Grand Tour victories and, most recently, the win in Paris-Roubaix: perhaps the pinnacle of what we wanted to achieve. In short, I am very happy to have worked with Grischa and I wish him all the very best.”

“Grischa is a friend of mine, but he wants to move on. I respect that choice. With Grischa’s departure, I can now announce that Marc will join our sporting management as Head of Racing. We have a highly respected successor ready within our own organisation to take over Grischa’s role.”

“As a top team, which we are, we know that people we have developed ourselves will from time to time be lost to rival teams. That reflects our team: getting better every day. And that is something we are extremely proud of, but also the reason why we try to train our own successors.”

“Since we changed our culture ten or twelve years ago, we have put a great deal of effort into developing all our staff members professionally. Marc has been involved in important decisions for a long time and is now ready to take over the role, even if the timing may not have been planned. But that is how things go in high-performance environments: you always have to be prepared.”

“I am 100 per cent convinced that Marc is ready for the job. Because he is jumping onto a moving train, he will have the next few weeks to focus fully on the Tour de France and the preparations that go with it.”

“The strength of our team is that we have won 10 Grand Tours with different riders, but also with different sports directors. Marc has just won his fourth Grand Tour as head coach, and with him our sporting management remains strong, united and it creates opportunities to become even stronger and do things differently.”

“I am convinced that we can continue building on our success. Our culture and all the people who are part of it are the foundation of that. We created that culture ten years ago and that makes our organisation robust, because it does not depend on one person. On top of that, we have a strong group of partners who share our vision.”

“Thanks Richard, for the kind words. Like Richard, I was also surprised and saddened by the message I received that Grischa will be leaving the team. He was a very pleasant colleague to work with.”

“If I look at myself, I have already been involved in many different matters and decisions in recent years. After 15 years as a sports director in the WorldTour, I also see this opportunity as a logical step for myself. I am very happy and grateful for the trust the team is giving me to take on this challenge.”

“After being head coach in the Giro, I can now say that I will also take on that role for the Tour de France. My first focus is there, and after the Tour we will look further.”